Thomas Robert Malthus
Thomas Robert Malthus FRS (13 February 1766 – 23 December 1834),Several sources give Malthus's date of death as 29 December 1834. See [http://www.retrobibliothek.de/retrobib/seite.html?id=110865 Meyers Konversationslexikon] (Leipzig, 4th edition, 1885-1892), "Biography" by Nigel Malthus (the memorial transcription reproduced in this article). But the 1911 [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Thomas_Robert_Malthus Britannica] gives 23 December 1834. was a British scholar, influential in political economy and demography.Petersen, William. 1979. Malthus. Heinemann, London. 2nd ed 1999.Malthus used his middle name Robert, though work after his lifetime often refers to him as Thomas Malthus. Malthus popularised the economic theory of rent. Malthus has become widely known for his theories concerning population and its increase or decrease in response to various factors. The six editions of his An Essay on the Principle of Population, published from 1798 to 1826, observed that sooner or later population gets checked by famine, disease, and widespread mortality. He wrote in opposition to the popular view in 18th-century Europe that saw society as improving, and in principle as perfectible.Geoffrey Gilbert, introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798. An essay on the principle of population. Oxford World's Classics reprint. viii in Oxford World's Classics reprint. William Godwin and the Marquis de Condorcet, for example, believed in the possibility of almost limitless improvement of society. So, in a more complex way, did Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose notions centered on the goodness of man and the liberty of citizens bound only by the social contract, a form of popular sovereignty. Malthus thought that the dangers of population growth would preclude endless progress towards a utopian society: "The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man".Malthus T.R. 1798. An essay on the principle of population. Chapter 1, p13 in Oxford World's Classics reprint. As an Anglican clergyman, Malthus saw this situation as divinely imposed to teach virtuous behaviour. Believing that one could not change human nature, Malthus wrote: Malthus placed the longer-term stability of the economy above short-term expediency. He criticised the Poor Laws,Malthus T.R. 1798. An essay on the principle of population. Chapter V, p39-45. in Oxford World's Classics reprint. and (alone among important contemporary economists) supported the Corn Laws, which introduced a system of taxes on British imports of wheat.Geoffrey Gilbert, introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798. An essay on the principle of population. Oxford World's Classics reprint. xx. He thought these measures would encourage domestic production, and so promote long-term benefits. Malthus T.R. An essay on the principle of population, Ed. 6 1826, Book 3, Chapter 6. "... a country which so restricts the importations of foreign corn as on an average to grow its own supplies, and to import merely in periods of scarcity, is not only certain of spreading every invention in manufactures and every peculiar advantage it may possess from its colonies or general commerce on the land, and thus of fixing them to the spot and rescuing them from accidents; but is necessarily exempt from those violent and distressing convulsions of property which almost unavoidably arise from the coincidence of a general war and an insufficient home supply of corn." Malthus became hugely influential, and controversial, in economic, political, social and scientific thought. Many of those whom subsequent centuries sometimes term "evolutionary biologists" read him, Not only after Darwin: some of the British proto-evolutionists (such as William Lawrence) read him, and Patrick Matthew certainly did: Matthew published in 1839 a short book, Emigration fields (Black, Edinburgh) encouraging emigration, in part as a solution to the problem of over-population. notably Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, for each of whom Malthusianism became an intellectual stepping-stone to the idea of natural selection. Browne, Janet 1995. Charles Darwin: Voyaging. Cape, London. p385–390Raby P. 2001. Alfred Russel Wallace: a life. Princeton. p21 and 131 Malthus remains a writer of great significance and controversy. Biography The sixth of seven children of Daniel and Henrietta Malthus, Thomas Robert Malthus grew up in The Rookery, a country house near Westcott in Surrey. Petersen describes Daniel Malthus as "a gentleman of good family and independent means... and a friend of David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau".Petersen, William. 1979. Malthus. Heinemann, London. 2nd ed 1999. p21 The young Malthus received his education at home in Bramcote, Nottinghamshire, and then at the Dissenting Warrington Academy. He entered Jesus College, Cambridge in 1784. There he took prizes in English declamation, Latin and Greek, and graduated with honours, Ninth Wrangler in mathematics.Petersen, William. 1979. Malthus. Heinemann, London. 2nd ed 1999. p28 He took the MA degree in 1791, and was elected a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge two years later. In 1797, he took orders Compare: and in 1798 became an Anglican country curate at Okewood near Albury in Surrey. His portrait,Painted by Linnell, and seen here in a cropped and scanned monochrome version. and descriptions by contemporaries, present him as tall and good-looking, but with a hare-lip and cleft palate.Hodgson, M.H. 2004. Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766–1834). In Rutherford D (ed) Biographical Dictionary of British Economists. Continuum, Bristol. The cleft palate affected his speech: such birth defects had occurred before amongst his relatives.Martineau, Harriet 1877. Autobiography. 3 vols, Smith, Elder, London. vol 1, p327. Malthus apparently refused to have his portrait painted until 1833 because of embarrassment over the hare-lip. Malthus married his cousin, Harriet, on April 12, 1804, and had three children: Henry, Emily and Lucy. In 1805 he became Professor of History and Political Economy at the East India Company College (now known as Haileybury and Imperial Service College) in Hertfordshire.Malthus T.R. 1798. An essay on the principle of population. Oxford World's Classics reprint: xxix Chronology. His students affectionately referred to him as "Pop" or "Population" Malthus. In 1818 Malthus became a Fellow of the Royal Society. Bath Abbey] in England hosts Malthus's tomb. ''An Essay on the Principle of Population'' Between 1798 and 1826 Malthus published six editions of his famous treatise, An Essay on the Principle of Population, updating each edition to incorporate new material, to address criticism, and to convey changes in his own perspectives on the subject. He wrote the original text in reaction to the optimism of his father and his father's associates (notably Rousseau) regarding the future improvement of society. Malthus also constructed his case as a specific response to writings of William Godwin (1756–1836) and of the Marquis de Condorcet (1743–1794). Malthus regarded ideals of future improvement in the lot of humanity with skepticism, considering that throughout history a segment of every human population seemed relegated to poverty. He explained this phenomenon by arguing that population growth generally expanded in times and in regions of plenty until the size of the population relative to the primary resources caused distress: Malthus also saw that societies through history had experienced at one time or another epidemics, famines, or wars: events that masked the fundamental problem of populations overstretching their resource limitations: Proposed solutions Malthus argued that two types of checks hold population within resource limits: positive checks, which raise the death rate; and preventative ones, which lower the birth rate. The positive checks include hunger, disease and war; the preventative checks, abortion, birth control, prostitution, postponement of marriage and celibacy.Geoffrey Gilbert, introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798. An essay on the principle of population. Oxford World's Classics reprint. viii Regarding possibilities for freeing man from these limits, Malthus argued against a variety of imaginable solutions. For example, he satirically criticized the notion that agricultural improvements could expand without limit: He also commented on the notion that Francis Galton later called eugenics: In the second and subsequent editions Malthus put more emphasis on moral restraint. By that he meant the postponement of marriage until people could support a family, coupled with strict celibacy (sexual abstinence) until that time. "He went so far as to claim that moral restraint on a wide scale was the best means—indeed, the only means—of easing the poverty of the lower classes." Geoffrey Gilbert, introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798. An essay on the principle of population. Oxford World's Classics reprint. xviii This plan appeared consistent with virtue, economic gain and social improvement. This train of thought counterpoints Malthus's stand on public assistance to the poor. He proposed the gradual abolition of poor laws by gradually reducing the number of persons qualifying for relief. Relief in dire distress would come from private charity.Malthus T.R. 1798. An essay on the principle of population. Chapter V, p39-45, in Oxford World's Classics reprint. He reasoned that poor relief acted against the longer-term interests of the poor by raising the price of commodities and undermining the independence and resilience of the peasant. In other words, the poor laws tended to "create the poor which they maintain".By doing what appears good, we may do harm. Unintended consequences play a major role in economic thought; see the invisible hand and the tragedy of the commons. It offended Malthus that critics claimed he lacked a caring attitude toward the situation of the poor. In the 1798 edition his concern for the poor shows in passages such as the following: In an addition to the 1817 edition he wrote: Some, such as William Farr and Karl Marx, argued that Malthus did not fully recognize the human capacity to increase food supply. On this subject, however, Malthus had written: "The main peculiarity which distinguishes man from other animals, in the means of his support, is the power which he possesses of very greatly increasing these means." Quoted in On religion As a believer and a clergyman, Malthus held that God had created an inexorable tendency to human population growth for a moral purpose, with the constant harsh threat of poverty and starvation designed to teach the virtues of hard work and virtuous behaviour. The issue has occurred to many believers: why should an omnipotent and caring God permit the existence of wickedness and suffering in the world? Malthus's theodicy answers that evil energizes mankind in the struggle for good. "Had population and food increased in the same ratio, it is probable that man might never have emerged from the savage state" . The principle of population represented more than the difference between an arithmetic and a geometric series; it provided the spur for constructive activity: :"Evil exists in the world not to create despair, but activity." Malthus T.R. 1798. An essay on the principle of population. Oxford World's Classics reprint. p158 Malthus saw "the infinite variety of nature" which "cannot exist without inferior parts, or apparent blemishes" . Such diversity and struggle functioned to enable the development of improved forms. Without such a contest, no species would feel impelled to improve itself. Without the test of struggle, and the failure or even death of some, no successful development of the population as a whole would take place. For Malthus, evil invigorates good and death replenishes life. Malthus painted a picture of fecundity in the face of enduring resource-scarcity, in which adversity and evil can stimulate beneficial outcomes.Hodgson, M.H. 2004. Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766–1834). In Rutherford D (ed) Biographical Dictionary of British Economists. Continuum, Bristol. Demographics and wages Malthus saw poverty as a positive check to population growth, believing people without means less likely to have children whom they could not support.Essay (1798), Chap. IV. Similarly, as wages increased, the birth-rate could be expected to increase while the death-rate decreased. Consequently, wage increases caused populations to grow. Malthus believed that this inevitably led to economic oscillations between relative prosperity and distress, though the oscillations were not always apparent: "A circumstance which has, perhaps, more than any other, contributed to conceal this oscillation from common view, is the difference between the nominal and real price of labour. It very rarely happens that the nominal price of labour universally falls; but we well know that it frequently remains the same, while the nominal price of provisions has been gradually rising. This, indeed, will generally be the case, if the increase of manufactures and commerce be sufficient to employ the new labourers that are thrown into the market, and to prevent the increased supply from lowering the money-price.10 But an increased number of labourers receiving the same money-wages will necessarily, by their competition, increase the money-price of corn. This is, in fact, a real fall in the price of labour; and, during this period, the condition of the lower classes of the community must be gradually growing worse. But the farmers and capitalists are growing rich from the real cheapness of labour. Their increasing capitals enable them to employ a greater number of men; and, as the population had probably suffered some check from the greater difficulty of supporting a family, the demand for labour, after a certain period, would be great in proportion to the supply, and its price would of course rise, if left to find its natural level; and thus the wages of labour, and consequently the condition of the lower classes of society, might have progressive and retrograde movements, though the price of labour might never nominally fall. "In savage life, where there is no regular price of labour, it is little to be doubted that similar oscillations took place. When population has increased nearly to the utmost limits of the food, all the preventive and the positive checks will naturally operate with increased force. Vicious habits with respect to the sex will be more general, the exposing of children more frequent, and both the probability and fatality of wars and epidemics will be considerably greater; and these causes will probably continue their operation till the population is sunk below the level of the food; and then the return to comparative plenty will again produce an increase, and, after a certain period, its further progress will again be checked by the same causes."Thomas Robert Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population, or a View of its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness; with an Inquiry into our Prospects respecting the Future Removal or Mitigation of the Evils which it Occasions (London: John Murray 1826). 6th ed., Book I, Chapter II. Accessed from http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1945 on 2010-02-13 Editions and versions * 1798: An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the future improvement of society with remarks on the speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other writers.. Anonymously published. * 1803: Second and much enlarged edition: An essay on the Principle of Population; or, a view of its past and present effects on human happiness; with an enquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions. Authorship acknowledged. * 1806, 1807, 1817 and 1826: editions 3–6, with relatively minor changes from the second edition. * 1823: Malthus contributed the article on Population to the supplement of the Encyclopedia Britannica. * 1830: Malthus had a long extract from the 1823 article reprinted as A summary view of the Principle of Population.dates from Malthus T.R. 1798. An essay on the principle of population. Oxford World's Classics reprint: xxix Chronology. Other works 1800: The present high price of provisions In this work, his first published pamphlet, Malthus argues against the notion prevailing in his locale that the greed of intermediaries caused the high price of provisions. Instead, Malthus says that the high price stems from the Poor Laws which "increase the parish allowances in proportion to the price of corn". Thus, given a limited supply, the Poor Laws force up the price of daily necessities. Then he concludes by saying that in time of scarcity such Poor Laws, by raising the price of corn more evenly, produce a beneficial effect.1800: The present high price of provisions, paragraph 26 1814: Observations on the effects of the Corn Laws Although government in Britain had regulated the prices of corn (wheat) since the seventeenth century , the Corn Laws originated in 1815. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars that year, Parliament passed legislation banning the importation of foreign corn into Britain until domestic corn cost 80 shillings per quarter. The high price caused the cost of food to increase and so caused great distress among the working classes in the towns. This led to serious rioting in London and to the "Peterloo Massacre" (1819) in Manchester.Hirst F.W. 1925. From Adam Smith to Philip Snowden: a history of free trade in Great Britain. Unwin, London. p88 Also: "The Corn Laws... safeguarded farmers from the consequences of their wartime euphoria, when farms had changed hands at the fanciest prices, loans and mortgages had been accepted on impossible terms." Eric Hobsbawm 1999. Industry and Empire: the birth of the Industrial Revolution. p175 In this pamphlet, printed during the parliamentary discussion, Malthus tentatively supported the free-traders. He argued that given the increasing expense of raising British corn, advantages accrued from supplementing it from cheaper foreign sources. This view he changed the following year. 1815: The Nature of Rent Rent constitutes a major concept in economics. David Ricardo, Malthus' contemporary and friendly rival, defined a theory of rent in his Principles of Political Economy (1817). Ricardo regarded rent as value in excess of real production — something caused by incident of ownership rather than by fundamental economic value imparted by free and equal trade. For Ricardo, rent represented a kind of negative money that landlords could pull out of the production of the land by measure of land's scarcity.On The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation London: John Murray, Albemarle-Street, by David Ricardo, 1817 (third edition 1821) -- Chapter 6, On Profits: paragraph 28, "Thus, taking the former . . ." and paragraph 33, "There can, however . . ." Contrary to this concept of rent, Malthus states that rent cannot exist except in the case of surplus. Also he says that rent, once accumulated, becomes subsequently a source of capital re-investment, causing positive effects through the growth and accumulation of productive wealth. He proposes rent to be a kind of surplus. 1815: The policy of restricting the importation of Grain '' Malthus emerged as the only economist of note to support customs duty on imported grain.Geoffrey Gilbert, introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798. ''An essay on the principle of population. Oxford World's Classics reprint. xx in Oxford World's Classics reprint. xx He had changed his mind from the previous year, siding now with the protectionists. Foreign laws, he noted, often prohibit or raise taxes on the export of corn in lean times, which meant that the British food supply could become captive to foreign politics. By encouraging domestic production, Malthus argued, the Corn Laws would guarantee British self-sufficiency in food.Cannan E. 1893. A history of the theories of production and distribution in English political economy from 1776 to 1848. Kelly, New York. 1820: Principles of political economy 1836: Second edition, posthumously published. Malthus intended this work to rival Ricardo's Principles (1817). It, and his 1827 Definitions in political economy (below), defend Sismondi's views on general glut as against Say's Law. Say's Law states, "there can be no general glut". A general glut falls under the general category of what one might term Malthus's "Surplus Theory", as opposed to his "main", and earlier, body of work, which presents a "Scarcity Theory". 1823: The Measure of Value, stated and illustrated 1827: Definitions in political economy '' :"The question of a glut is exclusively whether it may be general, as well as particular, and not whether it may be permanent as well as temporary...The tendency, in the natural course of things, to cure a glut or scarcity, is no more a proof that such evils have never existed, than the tendency of the healing processes of nature to cure some disorders without assistance from man, is a proof that such disorders never existed." Malthus T.R 1827. Definitions in political economy. p62–63 Other publications * 1807. ''A letter to Samuel Whitbread, Esq. M.P. on his proposed Bill for the Amendment of the Poor Laws. Johnson and Hatchard, London. * 1808. Spence on Commerce. Edinburgh Review 11, January, 429-448. * 1808. Newneham and others on the state of Ireland. Edinburgh Review 12, July, 336-355. * 1809. Newneham on the state of Ireland, Edinburgh Review 14 April, 151-170. * 1811. Depreciation of paper currency. Edinburgh Review 17, February, 340-372. * 1812. Pamphlets on the bullion question. '' Edinburgh Review'' 18, August, 448-470. * 1813. A letter to the Rt. Hon. Lord Grenville. Johnson, London. * 1817. Statement respecting the East-India College. Murray, London. * 1821. Godwin on Malthus. Edinburgh Review 35, July, 362-377. * 1823. Tooke – On high and low prices. Quarterly Review, 29 (57), April, 214-239. * 1824. Political economy. Quarterly Review 30 (60), January, 297-334. * 1829. On the measure of the conditions necessary to the supply of commodities. Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom. 1', 171-180. John Murray, London. * 1829. On the meaning which is most usually and most correctly attached to the term ''Value of a Commodity. Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom. '''2, 74-81. John Murray, London. Surplus Theory Whereas Malthus's main body of work presents a theory of irremediable, if not untreatable, scarcity, three of his other works present a theory of surplus: The Nature of Rent, Principles of political economy,''http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/essays/classic/glut.htm and ''Definitions in Political Economy ''. ''The Nature of Rent proposes rent as a kind of surplus, whereas the previous general definition of rent portrayed it as an societal economic loss caused by personal financial gain derived from land scarcity.David Ricardo, Principles (1817) Principles of Political Economy and Definitions in Political Economy defend the concept of the general glut, a theory that surplus value can present a problem. Rent as surplus, and a glut or surplus of goods as problems differ somewhat or stand in contradistinction to Malthus's earlier scarcity theory of The Principle of Population. Reactions to his ideas Malthus became subject to extreme personal criticism. People who knew nothing about his private life criticised him both for having no children and for having too many. In 1819, Shelley, berating Malthus as a priest, called him "a eunuch and a tyrant" (though the Church of England does not require celibacy, and Malthus had married in 1804). Percy B. Shelley: "A philosophical view of reform." In The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. London: Gordian, 1829. (vol. 7, p. 32) Marx repeated the lie, adding that Malthus had taken the vow of celibacy, and called him "superficial", "a professional plagiarist", "the agent of the landed aristocracy", "a paid advocate" and "the principal enemy of the people." Dupaquier J. (ed). 1983. Malthus past and present. New York: Academic Press. p258 In the 20th century an editor of the Everyman edition of Malthus claimed that Malthus had practised population control by begetting eleven girls. Fogarty, Michael P. 1958. Introduction to Malthus, Essay on the principle of population. Dent, London. vi (In fact, Malthus fathered two daughters and one son.) Garrett Hardin provides an overview of these personal insults.Hardin, Garrett 1998. "The feast of Malthus: living within limits". The Social Contract. Early responses William Godwin criticized Malthus's criticisms of his own arguments in his book On Population (1820). Other theoretical and political critiques of Malthus and Malthusian thinking emerged soon after the publication of the first Essay on Population, most notably in the work of the reformist industrialist Robert Owen, of the essayist William Hazlitt (1807) [http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/MalthusReply.htm Malthus And The Liberties Of The Poor], 1807 and of the economist Nassau William Senior, Two Lectures on Population , 1829 and moralist William Cobbett. Note also True Law of Population (1845) by politician Thomas Doubleday, an adherent of Cobbett's views. John Stuart Mill strongly defended the ideas of Malthus in his 1848 work, Principles of Political Economy (Book II, Chapters 11-13). Mill considered the criticisms of Malthus made thus far to have been superficial. The American economist Henry Charles Carey rejected Malthus's argument in his magnum opus The Principles of Social Science, (1858–1859). Carey maintained that the only situation in which the means of subsistence will determine population growth is one in which a given society is not introducing new technologies or not adopting forward-thinking governmental policy, and that population regulated itself in every well-governed society, but its pressure on subsistence characterized the lower stages of civilization. Marxist views Another strand of opposition to Malthus's ideas started in the middle of the nineteenth century with the writings of Friedrich Engels (Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy, 1844) and Karl Marx (Capital, 1867). Engels and Marx argued that what Malthus saw as the problem of the pressure of population on the means of production actually represented the pressure of the means of production on population. They thus viewed it in terms of their concept of the reserve army of labour. In other words, the seeming excess of population that Malthus attributed to the seemingly innate disposition of the poor to reproduce beyond their means actually emerged as a product of the very dynamic of capitalist economy. Engels called Malthus's hypothesis "...the crudest, most barbarous theory that ever existed, a system of despair which struck down all those beautiful phrases about love thy neighbour and world citizenship." Friedrich Engels 1844. Outlines of a critique of political economy. Engels also predicted that science would solve the problem of an adequate food supply. In the Marxist tradition, Lenin sharply criticized Malthusian theory and its neo-Malthusian version, See V. I. Lenin: "The Working Class and NeoMalthusianism" in Pravda No. 137, June 16, 1913; see also http://www.rcgfrfi.easynet.co.uk/ww/lenin/1913-wcn.htm calling it a "reactionary doctrine" and "an attempt on the part of bourgeois ideologists to exonerate capitalism and to prove the inevitability of privation and misery for the working class under any social system". Other dissenters Some 19th-century economists believed that improvements in finance, manufacturing and science rendered some of Malthus's warnings implausible. They had in mind the division and specialization of labour, increased capital investment, and increased productivity of the land due to the introduction of science into agriculture (note the experiments of Justus Liebig and of Sir John Bennet Lawes). Even in the absence of improvement in technology or of increase of capital equipment, an increased supply of labour may have a synergistic effect on productivity that overcomes the law of diminishing returns. As American land-economist Henry George observed with characteristic piquancy in dismissing Malthus: "Both the jayhawk and the man eat chickens; but the more jayhawks, the fewer chickens, while the more men, the more chickens." In the 20th century, those who regarded Malthus as a failed prophet of doom included an editor of Nature, John Maddox.Maddox, John 1972. The Doomsday Syndrome: an assault on pessimism. Economist Julian Lincoln Simon has criticised Malthus's conclusions.Simon J.L. 1981. The ultimate resource; and 1992 The ultimate resource II. He notes that despite the predictions of Malthus and of the Neo-Malthusians, massive geometric population growth in the 20th century did not result in a Malthusian catastrophe. Many factors may have contributed: general improvements in farming methods (industrial agriculture), mechanization of work (tractors), the introduction of high-yield varieties of wheat and other plants (green revolution), the use of pesticides to control crop pests. Each played a role. Antony Trewavas: "Malthus foiled again and again", in Nature 418, 668-670 (8 August 2002), retrieved 28 December 2008 The enviro-sceptic Bjørn Lomborg presents data showing that the environment has actually improved . Lomborg, Bjorn. 2001. The skeptical environmentalist. Cambridge UP, London. Chapter 5 Food and hunger, p60–69; and note also Part III: "Can human prosperity continue?" p91–160. Calories produced per day per capita globally went up 23% between 1960 and 2000, despite the world population doubling during that period. Graph in Lomberg 2001 p61; data from United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization database http://apps.fao.org/ Anthropologist Eric Ross depicts Malthus's work as a rationalization of the social inequities produced by the Industrial Revolution, anti-immigration movements, the eugenics movement and the various international development movements.Ross, Eric B. 1998. The Malthus factor: population, poverty, and politics in capitalist development. Zed Books, London, 1998. ISBN 1-85649-564-7 Influence Early influence Malthus belonged amongst a group of high-quality intellectuals employed by the British East India Company. They included both James Mill and his son, John Stuart Mill; Jeremy Bentham had a major influence on the policy of the company, though not as an employee. Malthus became a respected member of this elite group, and his position as professor at the Haileybury training college, which he held until his death in 1834, gave his theories some influence over Britain's administration of India. As an indication of the group's influence, note Lord William Bentinck's remark to James Mill at a farewell dinner before he left to take up the post of Governor-General of India (in office: 1828-1835): "It is you that will be Governor-General". Petersen, William. 1979. Malthus. Heinemann, London. 2nd ed 1999. p32 According to Malthus's biographer William Peterson, British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger (in office: 1783–1801 and 1804–1806), upon reading the work of Malthus, withdrew a Bill he had introduced that called for the extension of Poor Relief. Concerns about Malthus's theory helped promote the idea of a national population census in the UK. Government official John Rickman became instrumental in the carrying out of the first modern British census in 1801, under Pitt's administration. In the 1830s Malthus's writings strongly influenced Whig reforms which overturned Tory paternalism and brought in the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. Before Malthus, commentators had regarded high fertility as an economic advantage, because it increased the number of workers available to the economy. Malthus, however, looked at fertility from a new perspective and convinced most economists that even though high fertility might increase the gross output, it tended to reduce output per capita. A number of other notable economists, such as David Ricardo (whom Malthus knew personally) and Alfred Marshall admired Malthus and/or came under his influence. Malthus took pride in the fact that some of the earliest converts to his population theory included Archdeacon William Paley, whose Natural Theology first appeared in 1802. Ironically, given Malthus's own opposition to contraception, his work exercised a strong influence on Francis Place (1771–1854), whose neo-Malthusian movement became the first to advocate contraception. Place published his Illustrations and Proofs of the Principles of Population in 1822.Petersen, William. 1979. Malthus. Heinemann, London. 2nd ed 1999. Chapter 9: Fertility Later influence At Haileybury, Malthus developed a theory of demand-supply mismatches which he called gluts. Considered ridiculous at the time, his theory foreshadowed later theories about the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the works of economist and Malthus-admirer John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946). Malthusian ideas continue to have considerable influence. Paul R. Ehrlich has written several books predicting famine as a result of population increase: The Population Bomb (1968); Population, resources, environment: issues in human ecology (1970, with Anne Ehrlich); The end of affluence (1974, with Anne Ehrlich); The population explosion (1990, with Anne Ehrlich). In the late 1960s Ehrlich predicted that hundreds of millions would die from a coming overpopulation-crisis in the 1970s. Other examples of applied Malthusianism include the 1972 book The Limits to Growth (published by the Club of Rome) and the Global 2000 report to the then President of the United States of America Jimmy Carter. Science-fiction author Isaac Asimov issued many appeals for population-control reflecting the perspective articulated by people from Robert Malthus through Paul R. Ehrlich. More , a school of "neo-Malthusian" scholars has begun to link population and economics to a third variable, political change and political violence, and to show how the variables interact. In the early 1980s, James Goldstone linked population variables to the English Revolution of 1640-1660 and David Lempert devised a model of demographics, economics, and political change in the multi-ethnic country of Mauritius. Goldstone has since modeled other revolutions by looking at demographics and economics and Lempert has explained Stalin's purges and the Russian Revolution of 1917 in terms of demographic factors that drive political economy. Ted Robert Gurr has also modeled political violence, such as in the Palestinian territories and in Rwanda/Congo (two of the world's regions of most rapidly-growing population) using similar variables in several comparative cases. These approaches suggest that political ideology follows demographic forces. Malthus, sometimes regarded as the founding father of modern demography, continues to inspire and influence futuristic visions, such as those of K Eric Drexler relating to space advocacy and molecular nanotechnology. As Drexler put it in Engines of Creation (1986): "In a sense, opening space will burst our limits to growth, since we know of no end to the universe. Nevertheless, Malthus was essentially right." The Malthusian growth model now bears Malthus's name. The logistic function of Pierre Francois Verhulst (1804–1849) results in the S-curve. Verhulst developed the logistic growth model favored by so many critics of the Malthusian growth model in 1838 only after reading Malthus's essay. Malthus has also inspired retired physics professor, Albert Bartlett, to lecture over 1,500 times on "Arithmetic, Population, and Energy", promoting sustainable living and explaining the mathematics of overpopulation. *''Malthus became the best-abused man of the age'' Bonar, James 1885. Malthus and His Work. Macmillan, London. p1 *''There is hardly a cherished ideology, left or right, that is not brought into question by the principle of population.'' * One of the 100 most influential people of all time.Hart, Michael H. 1992 (1978). The 100: A ranking of the most influential persons in history, revised and updated for the nineties. Citadel, N.Y. First published in 1978, reprinted with minor revisions 1992. Social theory Despite use of the term "Malthusian catastrophe" by detractors such as economist Julian Simon (1932-1998), Malthus himself did not write that mankind faced an inevitable future catastrophe. Rather, he offered an evolutionary social theory of population dynamics as it had acted steadily throughout all previous history.See Elwell (2001) for an extended exposition Eight major points regarding population dynamics appear in the 1798 Essay : # subsistence severely limits population-level # when the means of subsistence increases, population increases # population-pressures stimulate increases in productivity # increases in productivity stimulate further population-growth # because productivity increases cannot maintain the potential rate of population growth, population requires strong checks to keep parity with the carrying-capacity # individual cost/benefit decisions regarding sex, work, and children determine the expansion or contraction of population and production # checks will come into operation as population exceeds subsistence-level # the nature of these checks will have significant effect on the larger sociocultural system — Malthus points specifically to misery, vice, and poverty Malthusian social theory influenced Herbert Spencer's idea of the survival of the fittest,Spencer, Herbert 1864. Principles of Biology, vol. 1, p444 and the modern ecological-evolutionary social theory of Gerhard Lenski and Marvin Harris . Malthusian ideas have thus contributed to the canon of socioeconomic theory. The first Director-General of UNESCO, Julian Huxley, wrote of The crowded world in his Evolutionary Humanism (1964), calling for a world population policy. Huxley openly criticised communist and Roman Catholic attitudes to birth control, population control and overpopulation. Biology Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace each read and acknowledged the role played by Malthus in the development of their own ideas. Darwin referred to Malthus as "that great philosopher",Letter to J.D. Hooker, 5 June 1860 and said: "This is the doctrine of Malthus, applied with manifold force to the animal and vegetable kingdoms, for in this case there can be no artificial increase of food, and no prudential restraint from marriage".Darwin, Charles 1859. On the origin of species by means of natural selection. Murray, London. p63 Darwin also wrote: Wallace stated: Ronald Fisher commented sceptically on Malthusianism as a basis for a theory of natural selection. Quoted in: Fisher did not deny Malthus's basic premises, but emphasised the role of fecundity. Quoted in: John Maynard Smith doubted that famine functioned as the great leveller, as portrayed by Malthus, but he also accepted the basic premises: References in popular culture * Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, represents the perceived ideas of Malthus, famously illustrated by his explanation as to why he refuses to donate to the poor and destitute: "If they would rather die they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population". In general, although Dickens may have had some Malthusian concerns (evident in Hard Times and other novels), he concentrated his attacks on Utilitarianism and on those who preached the achievement of Utopia through work, with labour as the answer to all social ills. * In Robert A. Heinlein's novel, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, the character Bernardo de la Paz says to Mannie: "This planet isn't crowded; it is just mismanaged ... and the unkindest thing you can do for a hungry man is to give him food. Read Malthus. It is never safe to laugh at Dr. Malthus; he always has the last laugh." * In Aldous Huxley's novel, Brave New World, people generally regard fertility as a nuisance, as cloning has enabled the society to maintain its population at precisely the level the controllers want. The women, therefore, carry contraceptives with them at all times in a "Malthusian belt". * In John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman Dr. Grogan' says of Malthus: "For him the tragedy of homo sapiens is that the least fit to survive breed the most". * George R. R. Martin's novel Tuf Voyaging features a planet called S'uthlam (a near-palindrome for "Malthus") which constantly faces the danger of mass famine because of its rapidly expanding population. * Urinetown, a musical about a world torn by drought, ends with a shout of "Hail Malthus!" after explaining that all the characters in the show die. (The musical portrays a society that cannot sustain itself because of a scarcity of water due to over-consumption. As a result the citizens have to pay to urinate.) *''Green Lantern'' #81, released in the heyday of Paul Ehrlich's theories on population explosion, featured a story called "The Population Explosion" that presented the home planet of the mysterious Guardians of the Universe: a world named Maltus or Malthus where overpopulation forced many of its inhabitants to flee into outer space. * In the Season 1 finale of the television-series Sliders, "The Luck of the Draw" references Malthus. * Bioy Casares's novel La invención de Morel makes frequent mention of Malthus * The villanous Anti-Spirals from the television anime Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann represent Malthus's sociological theories taken to inhumane extremes. * In the second season of the Stephen J. Cannell 1980's television series ''Wiseguy'', the villainous character Mel Profitt (played by Kevin Spacey) bases his arms-dealing philosophy on Malthus, saying: "The population grows geometrically and the food supply grows arithmetically. Three things keep the balance: Famine. Disease. And war." * In the June 2009 edition of National Geographic Magazine, Joel K. Bourne, Jr. in his article "The End of Plenty", made various references to Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population. Epitaph of Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus, just inside the entrance to Bath Abbey.]] The epitaph of Malthus in Bath Abbey reads: See also * Cornucopianism: a counter-Malthusian school of thought * Disaster#Causes of hypothetical future disasters * Food Race, a related idea from Daniel Quinn * Limits to growth, from the Club of Rome * Malthusian Catastrophe * Malthusian Growth Model * Malthusian equilibrium * Malthusianism * NSSM 200 * Overpopulation * World population Footnotes References * Dupâquier, J. 2001. Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766–1834). International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 9151–9156. Abstract. * Hollander, Samuel 1997. The Economics of Thomas Robert Malthus. University of Toronto Press. * Elwell, Frank W. 2001. A commentary on Malthus's 1798 Essay on Population as social theory. Mellon Press. * Evans, L.T. 1998. Feeding the ten billion – plants and population growth. Cambridge University Press. Paperback, 247 pages. Dedicated to Malthus by the author. ISBN 0-521-64685-5. * James, Patricia 1979. Population Malthus: his life and times. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. * Peterson, William 1999. Malthus, founder of modern demography 2nd ed. Transaction. ISBN 0-7658-0481-6. * Rohe, John F., A Bicentennial Malthusian Essay: conservation, population and the indifference to limits, Rhodes & Easton, Traverse City, MI. 1997 * Further reading * Negative Population Growth organization: a collection of essays for the Malthus Bicentenary * National Academics Forum, Australia: a collection of essays for the Malthus Bicentenary Conference, 1998 * Conceptual origins of Malthus's Essay on Population, facsimile reprint of 8 Books in 6 volumes, edited by Yoshinobu Nanagita (ISBN 978-4-902454-14-7) www.aplink.co.jp/ep/4-902454-14-9.htm * The Worldly Philosophers – the lives, times, and ideas of the great economic thinkers. Robert L. Heilbroner. * Elwell, Frank W. 2001. A Commentary on Malthus' 1798 Essay on Population as social theory E. Mellen Press, Lewiston, NY. ISBN 0-7734-7669-5. * National Geographic Magazine, June 2009 article, "The Global Food Crisis,"http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/cheap-food/bourne-text/4 External links * * [http://librivox.org/an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-by-thomas-malthus/ Librivox Audiobook: An Essay on the Principle of Population] * * Malthus profile and extensive links * Theories of Overpopulation - refer section entitled Criticism of the Malthusian Theory. Catholic Encyclopedia website * More Food for More People But Not For All, and Not Forever United Nations Population Fund website * The Feast of Malthus by Garrett Hardin in The Social Contract (1998) * Malthus biography by Nigel Malthus, a direct descendant of Malthus's brother Sydenham Malthus * The International Society of Malthus * Why Failing to Complete Green Revolution Could Bring Next Famine * Exponentialist website dedicated to Malthus * T. Robert Malthus's Homepage * [http://www.econlib.org/library/Malthus/malPop.html EconLib-1798: An Essay on the Principle of Population,] 1st edition, 1798. Library of Economics and Liberty. Free online, full-text searchable. * [http://www.econlib.org/library/Malthus/malPlong.html EconLib-1826: An Essay on the Principle of Population,] 6th edition, 1826. Library of Economics and Liberty. Free online, full-text searchable. Malthus published a major revision to his first edition — his second edition — in 1803. His 6th edition, published 1826, and revising his various 2nd-5th editions, became his widely cited final revision. * [http://human-nature.com/dm/chap2.html Online chapter MALTHUS AND THE EVOLUTIONISTS:THE COMMON CONTEXT OF BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL THEORY] from Darwin's Metaphor: Nature's Place in Victorian Culture by Professor Robert M. Young (1985, 1988, 1994). Cambridge University Press. Category:Demographers Category:English economists Category:Population